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Umphrey’s McGee Welcomes White Denim’s James Petralli In Nashville

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Last night Umphrey’s McGee continued their summer tour with a stop at the Ascend Amphitheater in Nashville. The Chicago-based band was closing out a two-night run with White Denim serving as their opening act. For those paying close attention to social media there seemed to be a high likelihood that a collaboration would be happening at some point during the scheduled two set show.

Umphrey’s opened their night in the Music City with “There’s No Crying In Mexico” and worked their way through “Remind Me,” “2nd Self,” “Wappy Sprayberry,” and the Wayne’s World nodding “Crucial Taunt.” Earlier in the day UM keyboard player Joel Cummins took to his Instagram account to tease the possibility of a White Denim collaboration. The prog-jam rockers came through as they welcomed White Denim’s lead singer James Petralli, sans guitar, to the stage next as they offered up a cover of Peter Tosh’s “Steppin’ Razor,” from the reggae singer’s 1977 release Equal Rights. The band let Petralli handled the lead vocals on their first take on tune since March of 2016. While we would have loved to have seen Petralli strap on a guitar and go toe-to-toe with the members of Umphrey’s it was great to see the two bands get into the collaborative spirit. The first set closed out with “White Man’s Mocassins” and “The Floor.”

The six-piece act opened their set second with with the combo of “Der Bluten Kat” > “Wife Soup” > “Der Bluten Kat.” Umphrey’s offered up their second bust out of the night next, as the band performed their take on Mark Ronson’s “Daffodils” for the first time since December of last year. “Upward” followed, with the band closing out the night with old-school faves “Wine, Women and Song” and “Miss Tinkle’s Oveture,” with a “Ringo” encore bringing the night to a close.

Watch White Denim’s James Petralli’s sit-in, and check out the full setlist below: